Estate Office (Bear Cottage), Traquair House

The Estate Office, also known as Bear Cottage, at Traquair House dates to approximately 1749 and was commissioned by Charles Stuart, the 5th Earl of Traquair. It is a single-storey, four-bay, rectangular estate cottage built in a vernacular style, with a rustic timber gabled porch and an attached square-plan outbuilding (likely a former store or byre with a piend roof) to the right. The cottage is constructed of random whinstone rubble, harled and painted on its main facade, with some whitewashing and roughcasting to the rear. Thin stone sills are present on the main elevation, while the rear windows have later dressings.

The northwest (principal) elevation features a four-bay former cottage, now the estate office. The entrance is in the second bay and is marked by an open timber porch with rustic logs supporting the corners, with weatherboarding below half height and diagonal timber in-fill above. There's a regularly spaced window in bays one and three, and a smaller window in the fourth bay. To the right is the blind rear of the single-and-a-half-storey former store, with a lower wall extending southwest and creating an open courtyard entrance used by the tea room.

The southwest elevation shows the blind end of the single-and-a-half-storey store and features a stone bear finial at the roof apex. The southeast (rear) elevation has a slightly advanced rear section of the original cottage, with a door to the left and a much later tripartite window to the right; a small window is on the narrow left return. A single-and-a-half storey square-plan building, probably a former store with a ground floor door and hayloft entrance, is attached to the left return, now in-filled, re-pointed, and altered with a central window. To the right of the cottage is a later projecting gable with centrally placed, semi-glazed double doors. The northeast elevation is a blind end to the cottage and the side of the rear gable, with a wall that forms a semi-enclosed garden area.

The windows are timber sash and case with 12-pane and 4-pane glazing to the front elevation, with some later replacement windows featuring timber frames and opening top hoppers. Later semi-glazed double doors are located on the rear gable. The roof is pitched and piended, with roll ridging on the main cottage and overlapped slate angles on the piended store, all covered in slate. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods are also present. A tall rubble stack rises from the roof, featuring a projecting rough neck cope and paired cans.

Inside, the room layout has been slightly altered and the interior, originally plain cottage style, has been refurbished to provide office accommodation.